This Huge Company Is Harnessing Mindfulness In Its Employees

While some businesses have gyms and cafeterias for their staff, cloud-based software company Salesforce is giving it employees the silent treatment.

The company is beginning to install mindfulness rooms on each floor of its buildings.

The move follows a workshop Buddhist monks gave a mindfulness workshop at Salesforce headquarters last year after which staff indicated the inner, silent contemplation the Monks spoke about could be a good thing. Founder and CEO Marc Benioff took this on board and decided to outfit and install the mindfulness spaces.

“They came to me and said, ‘There’s constant activity at Salesforce. You should take one of your entire floors and make it a silent floor,’” Benioff says “I said, ‘That’d be great, unless you work on that floor.’”Instead, “as we build facilities around the world, we’re now going to have a mindfulness section on each floor This space will not be for employees to make phone calls or take meetings, but rather to fully step away from the intensity of work. When someone enters one of the rooms, he or she will have to do so without bringing along any gadgets like a cell phone or computer”.

The rooms which are meant to encourage employees to turn their focus inwards, rather than thinking about external responsibilities, will be divided into two areas - one for meditating and another for reading. They will be located in a central position on each floor,to encourage employees to take breaks from their work and slow down.